Lenovo Aims for the Gamer Set With High-End PC

The company has created a new desktop computer for high-end customers called the Erazer X700. The PC, whose case features diamond-cut edges and dramatic blue lighting to emphasize its gamer appeal, was designed to run visually rich applications and top-tier videogames with ease while appealing to the discriminating customers that gamers are stereotypically known to be.

“It’s powerful and expandable,” said Jay Parker, general manager of consumer and small-business sales for the PC maker.

The device also features a button that will rev up the computer’s chips, known as “overclocking,” to eke out extra performance, Lenovo said. That process usually causes chips to become hotter than normal, which is also why the PC maker added a system to the device that cycles cool water through a block positioned over the chips to collect and disperse the heat.

Lenovo’s efforts to gain interest among gamers is the latest in its broader aims to sew up its leadership of the PC market. Once a little-known Chinese firm, Lenovo has grown in recent years to become a formidable player in the industry as heavyweights such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have struggled to maintain their once lofty positions. In October, industry analyst Gartner Inc. said Lenovo had overtaken H-P as the world’s biggest maker of PCs during the summer. IDC, which also tracks PC shipments world-wide, said H-P barely beat out Lenovo.

Lenovo has only recently begun to ramp up the profile of its consumer-oriented PCs in Western markets. The Chinese company is mostly known for its ThinkPad business-class PCs, which it bought from International Business Machines Corp. in 2004.

But lately, it has released a different class of devices like the Yoga, a touch-screen PC whose hinge allows the screen and keyboard to bend into various positions, such as from a standard clamshell laptop to a tablet, with the keyboard folded beneath the screen.

Bob O’Donnell, an analyst at IDC, said Lenovo’s efforts to attract attention among gamers with its new high-performance machine is largely expected. “It’s indicative of Lenovo extending its reach in a way that a company who wants to be number one has to do,” he said. “If I want to be number one, I have to be in every possible market.”

He added that gaming PCs tend to be profitable because high-end designs can command a higher premium than a run-of-the-mill computer. But gaming machines in general also tend to be a small segment of the market.

“It’s more of a statement, particularly in Lenovo’s case, that they’re reaching maturity and they’re gunning for number one, and it’s a hole that they had in their portfolio,” he said.

It helps that gaming PCs tend to be the type of computers customers want and are attracted to, rather than simply being a device people need to make spreadsheets, write essays and respond to email with.

It’s unclear, however, how many gamers still use PCs. Following Microsoft Corp.'s release of “Halo” for the original Xbox more than a decade ago, gaming has shifted drastically over to specialized home consoles. Top-tier videogames are regularly released for the Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 weeks ahead of their PC counterparts.

For one look at how many PC gamers there are, Valve Corp., a privately held videogame maker and online reseller of computer games, said on its website that it recently has seen peaks of more than six million gamers connected to its service at any given time. By comparison, Microsoft and Sony each have sold about 70 million units of their respective consoles.

Still, Lenovo is hopeful its new gaming PC will make a splash.

“The Erazer makes a play at it,” Mr. Parker said of the gaming PC market. “We don’t think we have our fair share yet.”